Diner becomes focal point for grieving Newtown residents

NEWTOWN, Conn. — A small diner in the middle of town became a gathering place Saturday morning for residents looking for a place to grieve communally in the aftermath of a killing spree whose true horror remains too fresh to grasp.

“I woke up this morning in tears,” said John Marcucilli, a 52-year-old father who raised three children in Newtown. “I said to myself, come to the diner, talk through it.”

The Sandy Hook Diner, a mainstay since 1935, welcomed patrons with familiarity amid a sea of confusion over how a town regarded as a great place to raise a family would become the backdrop to one of the deadliest mass killings in American history.

On the menu, there were hearty plates of eggs and country ham, and biscuits slathered with sausage gravy. Instead of the news, classic rock played overhead the lunch counter and small dining room.

Another familiar fixture was Msg. Robert Weiss, the pastor at St. Rose Roman Catholic Church, who the night before led a prayer service. He has breakfast at the diner just about every day.

Weiss was up early Saturday to join grief counselors and state police in visiting the homes of the victims’ families before authorities were expected to release their names to the media. Weiss said he visited the home of a man who lost both his 6-year-old daughter and his wife, a teacher at Sandy Hill Elementary School.

Adam Lanza on Friday morning shot and killed his mother, Nancy, at the home they shared in Newtown before driving to the school and killing 26 people, 20 of them children, in two rooms before committing suicide.

At the school on Saturday morning, state troopers carried a mixed assortment of flowers to place beside the school’s sign. The sanctuary at the Newtown United Methodist Church became a makeshift mental health clinic where anyone could meet with a counselor.

“This is a town where people choose to live because it’s safe and it’s a good place to raise children,” Weiss said. “To have it happen here doesn’t make sense to anyone.”

Adding to the incongruity for Marcucilli is the reputation of the Sandy Hook neighborhood where the shooter was raised. He said it’s a place where residents know the people who live nearby and cook for each other in dinner clubs.

Jodi Mucherino, a diner waitress who lost her 29-year-old son only five weeks ago, might be one of the few people in Newtown who could come closest to knowing what the elementary school parents are experiencing.

“It’s hard,” she said, becoming emotional. “You don’t know what to feel. You don’t what to ask. You just don’t know. All you can say is you’re sorry.”

Mucherino said she spoke with her late son Jimmy on Friday night and asked him to “open his arms to all those babies.”